


Revenant

by elareine



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Established Relationship, Ghosts, JayTim Spooktober, M/M, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:21:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27311815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elareine/pseuds/elareine
Summary: Everyoneaccepts that Jason comes back to life because of something that happens in another universe, including Jason. It’s a glitch, never meant to happen until it does, and he digs himself out of the grave with his bare hands and doesn’t think twice about it.There are other things to focus on. Until Tim comes along.
Relationships: Tim Drake/Jason Todd
Comments: 18
Kudos: 95
Collections: JayTimWeek





	Revenant

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted for JayTim Spooktober prompt "ghosts" on [my tumblr](https://elareine.tumblr.com/post/632903290735214592/jaytimspooktober-ghosts-revenant-one-that).

_Revenant: “One that returns after death or a long absence.”_

_In folklore, a revenant is an animated corpse that is believed to have revived from death to haunt the living, sustained by feelings of anger or the need for revenge. The word revenant is derived from the Old French word, revenant, the “returning” (see also the related French verb revenir, meaning “to come back”)._

Everyoneaccepts that Jason comes back to life because of something that happens in another universe, including Jason. It’s a glitch, never meant to happen until it does, and he digs himself out of the grave with his bare hands and doesn’t think twice about it. 

There are other things to focus on. His anger when he returns and finds out that the Joker is still alive—has been allowed to _harm others_ —burns hot and bright enough to tear the city down. So that’s what he does. 

It’s weird how his body changes. He’s as tall as Bruce, now, and almost as beefy. They can go head-to-head in terms of strength and speed. With the amount of malnutrition he experienced as a kid, Jason never expected this. The Lazarus Pit really is amazing. 

He’s ready to kill anyone he needs to. Later, he’ll look back at the choices he makes—attacking a _kid_ , really?—and he will be ashamed of some of them, but not all. 

Even when he leaves Gotham, the anger never stays behind. He loves hanging out with his new friends—loves _them_ , even if he’d never say it—but it doesn’t fill the void. 

Eventually, he returns to her, the city that birthed him, the one that he loves despite her protector. He delivers justice, not revenge, and pretends that’s enough. 

Slowly, almost without him noticing, one person comes into focus: Tim Drake. It’s like… wherever he turns, Tim is there, offering him a hand, steady and patient as the sea. 

One day, Jason grasps it. 

Tim doesn’t flinch when things get ugly. He just rolls up his sleeves and gets to fixing it.And gradually, almost reluctantly, Jason starts putting in the work, too. 

It’s easy to be with Tim. Not that the guy is uncomplicated, by any means—we’re talking abandonment issues a mile wide here. Jason can deal with that, though. His is the kind of presence that makes itself felt; doubly so when he intentionally dials it up. Even Tim finds it hard to imagine Jason leaving him after the guy sleeps wrapped around him every night for over a year. They share an apartment long before either of them consciously makes the decision to do so. 

Tim’s brilliant and kind and _necessary_ to Jason. It’s easy to tell him that. In turn, Jason listens when Tim whispers that he’s loved, and he’s starting to believe it. 

At first, his reconciliation—well, his truce—with Bruce is solely for Tim. It’s not that the other man expects it of him, but Jason sees how stressed their fights make Tim. Honestly, he’s getting a bit tired of the constant anger himself. 

So they work on it. Bruce visibly bites his tongue when Jason does his thing, and Jason stops demanding for him to compromise his morals, and somehow, someway, they actually reconcile. Now he’s invited to family dinners every Thursday. Imagine that. 

In fact, he needs to get ready for that soon. Alfred wouldn’t appreciate him showing up in his sweatpants. Then again… Tim will be home in half an hour, and he likes watching Jason change. Jason stays where he is. 

Today’s a Jane Austen kind of day. His phone is on silent and out of reach on the table. It’s his day off, and recently, that has started to mean something. 

“I have no notion of loving people by halves; it is not my nature,” Jason reads and smiles. That’s Tim to a T. Loyal to a fault. 

Maybe the quote can be about Jason, too. He likes that thought more than he’s willing to admit. For so long, his life has been nothing but anger, of a need to get his revenge… but looking around, thinking of where he is—in the apartment he shares with his boyfriend, waiting for him to come home so they can attend family dinner and then patrol Gotham’s darkness together… he’s come a long way, doesn’t he? 

For the first time since he died, Jason Todd is genuinely content. 

And then he’s feeling weird. His hands are shaking—no, they’re blurring, fizzling out at the edges. 

He’s so tired. Maybe he just needs to lie down. Close his eyes. Sleep…

Jason jolts. This isn’t good. The last time he thought like that, he— 

He scrabbles for his phone. Tim. He needs to call Tim. If he’s been poisoned, if this is a panic attack, if he’s sick, if he’s dying—no matter what, Tim can help. Tim always makes everything better. 

Tim… 

Tim can’t find his boyfriend. Which is weird, considering they live together and are supposed to head out for a family dinner in, like, ten minutes. Jason can be flaky, but he’d never let Alfred down like that. 

Still, they get caught up sometimes. Even if it’s supposed to be a day off for Jason. 

Tim texts him. No reply. 

He calls, and the ringtone comes from the living room. What the fuck? 

Worried now, Tim checks the surveillance footage. 

It looks like a typical day off for Jason—lounging around, making food, reading on the couch—until he gets up and all of a sudden, alarm visible on his face, hand going for his phone on the table next to him… and then the footage goes staticy. When it resumes normal service three minutes later, Jason is gone. 

Tim tries to restore the lost footage to no avail. Each time he looks at the static, he feels like throwing up. 

Their living room is now a crime scene, but one reluctant to give up its secrets. There’s no sign of a fight. Jason wouldn’t go without a fight. If he’d been taken, Tim would expect blood, a broken table leg, bullets in the walls, gunshot residue—something, _anything_ to tell him what happens. 

All there is, is a pristine room and Jason’s cell phone on the table. 

Tim calls Kon. “Can you hear Jason anywhere?” 

And his best friend tries, he does, but he comes up empty. That’s when the panic really starts to set in. 

Tim goes searching. At first, the others assume that Jason just left. He’s done it before. 

They’re _wrong_. Tim knows Jason. He keeps looking, trying not to feel bitter because that’s a pointless and small feeling compared to the overwhelming worry. 

His first visit is to Arkham. Then it’s Black Mask’s and his cronies’ turn. None of them feel like talking, of course, but Tim can be persuasive if he wants to be. 

No one knows anything. 

Dick joins in his search not even a week later, tracking down Slade and Deadshot. Three days later, Tim enters an old lair of the Joker and stumbles over Damian collecting DNA samples from old blood splatter. Months pass and Bruce starts to worry, too. Roy and Kori are with Tim from the start, checking their old hideouts, visiting old enemies outside Gotham. Hell, the Green Lanterns are checking other _planets_. 

Jason’s family is looking for him, and they can’t find him. 

Eventually, all the avenues are exhausted. It’s not that they _stop_ looking, precisely, it’s that there’s nowhere left to look. 

Tim looks, anyway. No matter where he goes, what he does, Jason is always there, just out of reach. They all think he’s deluding himself, pushing back his grief. They’re wrong. Tim knows that Jason is gone. His absence is everywhere, and Tim misses him like he didn’t know it’s possible to miss someone. 

But if Jason is dead, then he will not go unavenged this time, Tim vows. Not again. 

And yes, maybe Jason left. Maybe he just had enough of Tim, of the life they were building together, of their relationship. Perhaps Tim was too much too fast or not enough. He’ll never know. 

If that’s not grief, then he doesn’t know what is. 


End file.
